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HD Pentax DA 16-85mm F3.5-5.6 ED DC WR

Looks like an interesting lens, from the write up it seems to be aimed squarely at the K-3 and it should help get the best from it. It would be on my 'Most wanted' list except for the price. £600 is painful, no very painful.......I wonder if it will come down over time?

My understanding of the Pentax train of thought on apertures is that it is better to design a zoom lens that works very well at the limited maximum aperture than to compromise quality to get f/2.8. Most of the time we stop down to f/4 anyway. If one needs f/2.8 or 1.7, use a good prime, which will always be better.

And then they cost a King's ransom to boot. I am more inclined to favour the slower, but more accurate zooms that come from this Brand. £499 sounds a lot better, but the Tax Man cometh in a few days time, so the bank account will be bare.....

Ys this would be a good option for me. I have the Sigma 10-20 (15-30) and the Pentax 28-105 (42-158) so the 16-50 (24-75) would drop in nicely. Thanks for reminding me. Some of the on line reviews are not complimentary about the reliability of the SDM.

And for longer than 50 then the 50-135 is a superb lens and a very useful range on APSC (70-200 ff equivalent of course). Then you can jump to the DA*300 which pairs very well with the 1.4 converter. Unless you have specialist wildlife needs for the DA*200 which is also brilliant. Unless of course you can find an FA*200 or A*200 macro since they are amongst the finest glass ever made. Oh but sometimes you need a compact and fast prime so you can't ignore the FA77 or the FA31 since they are to die for. Or just stick to the kit lens and save your pension and your marriage.

the 16-50 (24-75) would drop in nicely. Thanks for reminding me. Some of the on line reviews are not complimentary about the reliability of the SDM.

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When first released, the 16-50/2.8 DA* did indeed suffer reliability issues with the SDM AF motor, as I learned the hard way. However, this was redesigned, and having had the new design motor retrofitted (thanks, Asahi Photo), I can say that it's been working well for me for 4 years now.

SRS were selling the Pentax 16-85 at £99.00 off, but they sold out completely in a couple of days.

I decided to be sensible and see just what my Sigma 17-70 was really capable of, so I looked at the test results on Photozone.de......they confirmed that at 17 and 2.8 it was pretty soft, but stopped down to f/8 things improved dramatically, at mid range f/4 to f/5.6 were also pretty good, so I decided to experiment with the K-3.

It does perform much better when stopped down and on the K-3 at f/8 it is giving very acceptable sharpness and good contrast, but there is quite a bit of green and magenta colour fringing. This may be correctable perhaps in PS or Lightroom.

I decided to be sensible and see just what my Sigma 17-70 was really capable of, so I looked at the test results on Photozone.de......they confirmed that at 17 and 2.8 it was pretty soft, but stopped down to f/8 things improved dramatically, at mid range f/4 to f/5.6 were also pretty good, so I decided to experiment with the K-3.

It does perform much better when stopped down and on the K-3 at f/8 it is giving very acceptable sharpness and good contrast, but there is quite a bit of green and magenta colour fringing. This may be correctable perhaps in PS or Lightroom.

Click to expand...

Pretty much exactly the same as I have found with mine, wide or close to wide open it's a bit soft albeit not unusably so but pretty much spot on for sharpness once close down a stop or more.